I genuinely want to know ?

[crikeybill]

Ok So i work in a busy NHS hospital office.
There are 3 managers that work together and have to cover each other, of which I am one.
One of the managers has handed in her notice and leaves next week, this leaves me and another woman. We are not replacing her ( thanks Budget cuts !)
Other woman is pg and goes on maternity leave end of November, this means it will be just me for the whole of 2013. No problem with that, she is entitled to have dc go on maternity leave etc. Although the workload will be interesting We dont really get on to be honest and infact we rarely speak unless its work related. We have separate offices so can avoid each other quite easily apart from at meetings.

Anyway she and I both have school age children. Hers is 5 and mine are 8 and 9. I got in today and she has booked the whole of the summer holidays off apart from 1 week !!! Plus that week is overlapping with mine which i understood couldnt happen !!!! She hasnt asked me what I am doing, she hasnt asked me if this is ok ( we will have to cover each other now the third one has gone ) and frankly im fuming.
I spoke to our line manager who said that as far as he is concerned it is first come, first served !! he is rubbish though as he hates confrontation so will have just let her have it !

I am so angry. I am angry that I will be working most of the holidays, apart from the 1 week I booked back in March. I am angry that she doesnt feel that as it is now just us two she should have spoken to me. I am angry that my crap line manager has allowed it to happen !!

I really want to email her to point all this out but dont want to sound petty and im genuinely wondering if I am being petty ????

Am I being unreasonable ??
What would you do ?

She is being unreasonable and selfish. But these things happen at work. I've suffered from it. And often management will just come out with the first come first served line, or anything they can think of which means they don't have to do anything. But you have left it very late to book the time off or argue your case. Then I see you couldn't book it sooner. It a rubbish system and I'd do as someone else says. Raise a grievance. What would happen if you took the leave anyway and said emergency child care. Though I know you would not want to do this. But sometimes bending over backwards to be reasonable doesn't work with some selfish folk.

I'd be tempted to book my holidays in when I wanted them and if they overlap with hers then the management will have to do something. Good luck in this difficult situation. And raise the greivance as well.

Just to say, I suspect your colleague is very stressed about this too, so yes, has taken the first opportunity to try and sort a problem that is presumably a great source of worry to her.

I don't think she is your problem tbh. As she's only been given this leave as a special parental leave/pregnancy concession, that's an issue for your line manager to handle. He isn't being reasonable if he's doing that by assuming you alone will cover it. So your manager is your real problem.

As someone else said, you are going to have this problem all next year when she's on mat. leave. Your employer can't not let you use your leave then, so it must be possible to find an arrangement that will work then - and hence this summer too - which will enable you to take a summer holiday.

Good luck, but please don't harrass the pregnant woman - your employer is legally required to make accommodations for her pregnancy after all, and you don't want to fall foul of your employers bullying and harrassment policy. Which I think you might if you email or talk to her about this in your current mood.

Hearts - if she was really suffering from ante natal depression she would be off for the entire period. The booking seems quite selective.

If her leave is related to pregancy issues, They can force her maternity leave to start if she's 11 weeks from her due date, can't they?

I've not read thread properly. The management should be providing adequate cover. I agree with not confronting your pregnant colleague.

I really think you need to raise this to the next level. Definitely, definitely progress this through HR, with a view to getting your manager a talking through his/her responsibilities.

It's not really about you, her, her pregnancy. It's about your manager not doing the job s/he is paid to do.

Leave all the stuff about what she is/isn't up to to one side. Your manager has basically left you with a ridiculous situation, that needs resolving, not apportioning blame.

Good luck.

And if HR try and fob you off, post in "employment " on mn, and go back and push HR.

Only in the public sector could you book off an entire summer holiday

Not if it Parental Leave that has been requested under certain circumstances, anyone is legally entitled to do this.

If you don't speak then you don't know what her circumstances are, she may have very good reason for this, which an employer has to give ,unpaid.

I would not email her directly as she is only doing what she is entitled to.

You are targeting her, but it is the budget cuts and not using agency/temp staff that is the problem.

If you are seriously ill over the summer, what are they going to do?

They can force her maternity leave to start if she's 11 weeks from her due date, can't they

No, four weeks.

Ahh... Tis now four weeks. Shows how long ago I had my babies!

I think I'd send an email to line manager. copying in HR along the lines of:

"Hi, as per our discussion - thank you for explaining the circumstances around [pregnant colleague's] exceptional leave arrangements over the summer holiday period.

Given [leaving colleague's] imminent departure and [pregnant colleague's] impending maternity leave, this highlights the need to have a clear strategy in place for holiday cover in the near future. Can we add this to the agenda for our next 1-2-1/management meeting/office meeting/weekly catch-up/whatever you do in your department?

In the meantime, this obviously causes me a short-term problem with taking some leave in the summer over and above the pre-booking minimum week, as I'm sure you appreciate. As mentioned briefly, I propose to take X additional week and in the weeks leading up to this time, will train [most suitable colleague below management grade] to cover the essential tasks in my absence. This will be an excellent learning opportunity for her and as I understand [pregnant colleague] is taking unpaid leave, this will allow us to pay [suitable colleague] at management rate for the period of my two-week holiday. If you are in the process of making alternative arrangements to cover my absence, please let me know before I speak to [suitable colleague]."

Managers love solutions, and there's the added bonus of possibly dropping him in it with HR for discussing pregnant colleague's circumstances with you, depending on how confidential they are/should have been.

Not being able to book holidays is a horrible thing, for the first 3 years of DSs life we were unable to have a summer holiday as at DHs old job July and August holidays were allocated to "parents with caring responsibilities" since I was at home and DS was not school aged DH did not come under this rule. It sounds fair enough but we couldn't afford (or really want) to go abroad so we had a few years of caravan holidays in November. So I can't really understand why your needs have not been taken into account.
I can only agree that you should take it to HR.

fireandashes makes a good point. They are saving money by giving her unpaid leave. They could use that money to hire a temp so you could go on hol. If you make a fuss and suggest this, they may do this. Otherwise they'll just thank their lucky stars they're better off.

What was your rationale for not booking more than one week off, if the summer holidays are that important for you?

Read the OP's posts, fluffi!

Also, if they save money by giving her unpaid leave in the summer hol, and you have to pay for childcare to carry on working, they have essentially passed that cost on to you.
You could point that out if you wanted to get heavy.

Presumably you could have got there first - so, why didn't you?

I would be looking to your line manager, not your co-worker on this one.

Fuck's sake fluffi, read the thread!

And you Spring.

I have just read about the cancer clinic in OPs later post. You are right I didn't read the whole thread before posting but I would have thought those circumstances would have been worth mentioning first up and idiots like me wouldn't be asking why the OP hadn't been better organised on the leave booking front.
Perhaps a three way discussion with colleague and manager?

I think fireandashes makes a sensible suggestion.

The most amusing thing about reading this thread is the number of people saying "Why didn't you book your holiday earlier?", missing every instance of the OP saying "I'm not allowed to book holiday earlier."

Anyway, OP, look on the bright side, she'll be away for ages and you might end up with a nice temp to work with.

Is it just me or is it weird that someone can book time off for when it conveniently suits them to be stressed about their pregnancy? Surely if this was the case, her GP would sign her off NOW!

As far as I am aware, you can't plan stress leave

Thank you for your all your help. I have reported the post to be deleted as I am suitably paranoid now. If she mumsnets, this is terribly identifiable

I have taken on board your points and have emailed my manager asking for a meeting. I have stolen a lot of your wording fireanddashes. I am utterly pissed off but there you go.

oh and I cant book my annual leave in advance

Can you look into the costs of temporary cover for the holiday? If you go into your (very weak) manager with a cost effective solution to your problem, he may bite your hand off.

Your manager is in a very weak position. With one member of staff having left, and another effectively taking the whole summer off, he will be screwed if you resign as well. Be prepared to suggest that your letter of resignation will be winging its way to him if he doesn't resolve the issue.

You are not being unreasonable in expecting to spend a two week holiday with your family.

I don't see the problem. You should have booked some holidays first if you knew it was first come first served. That's what always happened at my last job. People started booking summer holidays as early as February.